title: Hepatitis G virus infection in Amerindians and other Venezuelan high-risk groups.
abstract: Recently, a new virus related to flaviviruses, the hepatitis G virus (HGV), or GBV-C virus, was discovered as a putative blood-borne human pathogen. HGV RNA (NS5 region) was amplified by reverse transcription-nested PCR in the sera of 6 of 64 (9%) hemodialysis patients; 2 of 80 (2.5%) West Yukpa Amerindians, a population with a high rate of HBV infection but negative for HCV infection; and 1 patient with an acute episode of non-A, non-B, non-C hepatitis (NABCH). The patterns of single-strand conformation polymorphism of the amplified products were unique among different specimens and similar on follow-up for hemodialysis patients. All patients tested remained HGV RNA positive 1 and 2 years later, without major sequence variation, except for the NABCH patient, for whom a double infection and an apparent clearance of the original dominant variant was observed after 2 years. The sequences of the NS5 amplified products demonstrated 85 to 90% identity with other reported HGV sequences.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Biología de Virus, Centro de Microbiología y Biología Celular, Caracas, Venezuela. fpujol@pasteur.ivic.ve
authors.forename: F H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Pujol
authors.forename: Y E
authors.initials: YE
authors.lastname: Khudyakov
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Devesa
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Cong
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Loureiro
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Blitz
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Capriles
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Beker
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Liprandi
authors.forename: H A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Fields
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018067:Flaviviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000175:diagnosis; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000175:diagnosis; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007199:Indians, South American; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000009:adverse effects; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA; D014687:Venezuela / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral